


Edward and the Real Boy: Little Bundle of Bliss (Ficlet)

by mrgoldsdearie



Series: Nygmobblepot Ficlets [22]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Delusions, Fluff, Hallucinations, M/M, love doll!oswald
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 16:22:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12685605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrgoldsdearie/pseuds/mrgoldsdearie
Summary: Nygmobblepot Lars and the Real Girl AU—Edward comes home to find his dolly boyfriend waiting while cradling a little lifelike baby doll in his arms.





	Edward and the Real Boy: Little Bundle of Bliss (Ficlet)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gayyyluigi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayyyluigi/gifts).



> My friend @sparklyweegee sent me this prompt: Edward and the Real Boy AU where Eddie walks home one day to find Ozzie with one of those Reborn Baby dolls in his arms!! I just couldn’t pass up such an amazing prompt. EDDIE AND HIS LITTLE DOLLY FAMILY ARE TOO FUCKING CUTE!!!! Please like, reblog, or comment if you enjoyed the story. Happy reading! Ϛ⃘๑•͡ .̫•๑꒜ℒℴѵℯ❤

Edward comes home after a long day at the GCPD to a sight he's never imagined seeing in his loft—especially something this unexpected from his dolly boyfriend. He and Oswald have been dating for a little over a year at this point and hadn't really gone into depths about having children. They've only muttered the word marriage to each other in a few short conversations, but it is safe to say that children wouldn't come before their nuptials.

He steps into the house and gawks at the life-sized love doll sitting in the wheelchair, holding a baby doll.

The new doll is wrapped in a deep purple blanket that has a pattern of multiple colors with a design that appears to come from a country in Africa. The baby doll itself has rich dark skin with soft black curls on top of its head and wearing a little pink bow headband. It's a beautiful lifelike depiction of a real child, but the sight of it cause Edward's head to spin. The forensics tech’s eyes nearly pop out of his skull as he stares speechlessly at the little doll. He doesn't blink until his mind is finally able to animate his delusions to life.

_“Surprise, Eddie!” Oswald exclaimed after Edward drops his leather messenger bag on the floor. He cradles the little baby and wipes away the drool from her pouty lips._

Edward's eyes widen and he continues to stand motionless, feet frozen in place as if they were trapped in a block of concrete. There isn't supposed to be another doll in this house.

_“I knew you'd be so surprised!” Oswald's eyes sparkle with delight and he picks up the baby bottle from his lap to continues to feed the child. “Isn't she beautiful!” He turns the baby so Edward can get a better look at their new...daughter._

Edward forces himself out of his numb state and stumbles up to the dolls in the chair. “W-Who…. Who is that?” He points at the tiny doll, but Oswald doesn't answer him. The hallucination of his boyfriend just sits in the chair with a radiant smile on his face and gazes down as he feeds the small child laying peacefully in his arms.

Actually, Edward's mind can't process a story for this particular situation. Having a baby is completely unforeseen from anything he expected in their current life together. So his imagination reflects his lack of knowledge until he gains a better understanding of what's going on.

Edward walks a little closer to the dolls in the wheelchair and the bottom of his shoe steps on a piece of paper on the floor. In his state of shock, he didn't notice it when he entered the loft. After swiftly picking it up, Edward reads the letter which is written in Barbara Kean’s handwriting. Oswald always asks Barbara to write his letters and Edward has come to recognize her chicken scratch.

> _Welcome home, boyfriend!_
> 
> _I'm just going to get right to the point since you've probably noticed it by now…._
> 
> _I’ve had a baby!_
> 
> _Well, I didn't literally have the baby, but you know what I mean…._
> 
> _I adopted her!_
> 
> _Meet Regina Ambrose Cobblepot-Nygma! (I know it's a mouthful.) The sweetest and most beautiful baby in the world. She’s all ours now!_
> 
> _She's three months old and just arrived from Senegal last week. She was found abandoned in a village that wasn't her own and her real parents were never located. Isn't that horrible?_
> 
> _As soon as I heard her story I went to work on getting her into the county and surprise you with the greatest thing to ever happen to us!_
> 
> _I love her so much already and all I want to do is protect her. I think I'm really cut out to be a mother. I can't wait to see how amazing of a father you'll be, Eddie!_

(Tabitha and Barbara had actually purchased the doll from an artist who takes old baby dolls and transforms them into surreal creations that look like the genuine thing. Reborn Dolls can fool the eye into thinking you are looking at a living, breathing, child—much like a Love Doll can with just a glimpse.

The women thought since Oswald and Edward's relationship seemed to be going so well and looks to be on track to last the passage of time, that they'd take it upon themselves to add a little branch to their family tree.)

Edward's heart beats out of his chest and his right hand involuntarily crumbles up the note.

_“Hey!” Oswald barked. “Why are you doing that?”, he says pissed about the fact that Edward is destroying the announcement of their child. “What the hell is wrong with you?”_

Edward gasps and quickly straightens the paper. “I didn't mean to do that.”

_“Well, you could have fooled me.” Oswald lifts Regina to his shoulder and tenderly pats her back to burp her._

“I really didn't,” Edward says genuinely. “I'm so sorry.” He lays the letter on the coffee table, then takes off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose as he paces slowly in front of Oswald. He tries to make sense of what has happened.

_“Eddie, what's wrong?” Oswald asks with concern in his voice, patting the baby girl on the back. This isn't how he thought Edward would react when he saw the baby._

He stops pacing, places his glasses back on, and faces Oswald—finally ready to say what's on his mind. There's no other way to express how he feels, except for just saying them up front. “You just bought a baby home.”

_Oswald squints, tipping his head to the right. “I didn't just bring any baby home,” he says, trying not the raise his voice in the child's ear. How could Edward be upset over something so precious? “I brought OUR daughter home.”_

“Oswald, we never talked about having children.” They've coasted on the subject a few time but never taken anything too seriously. At least, Edward didn't. “I didn't even know you really wanted to be a parent.”

_Oswald stares piercing daggers into Edward's soul, offended by his boyfriend's words. “Ed, I've always talked about my mother and how she raised me.”_

_Regina burps and squirms in Oswald's arms._

_“How much she loved me and devoted her life to making sure I was always happy,” Oswald continued. “I've always talked about that with you.”_

“Yes, I know, but I never took those conversations as if you were talking about being a mother yourself. I just thought you were being nostalgic.”

_“Then you weren't really listening!” Oswald says a little too loud and with more emotion than he was willing to show—which causes the baby to flench in his arms. “I'm so sorry, sweetie.” He soothes Regina's back to settle her. “I didn't expect your father to act this way,” he says softly to the baby, grazing his pointed nose in her loose curls. Once she's calmer in his arms, Oswald looks back up at Edward as he cradles Regina's head. “How could you reject our child?”_

“Oswald don't put words in my mouth.” He points at the at the love doll holding the baby doll. “I never said I was rejecting her.”

_“Then what the hell is this?” Oswald asks stern and just loud enough not to scare Regina again. “I thought you would be happy.” His face reddens and tears start to burn in his eyes. “I thought this is what we were working for. I thought this was where our life was going, and now you want to send her back?”_

“I didn't say that.” He wishes Oswald would stop twisting his words.

_“She has no family in Senegal. She has nothing. You want her to go back to feeling abandoned and unwanted because that's exactly how she will feel. That's exactly how you felt once.” Oswald knows she's just three months old, but that feeling of being unwanted is something she could grow up with. He thought Edward would understand that better than anyone. “She traveled hundreds of miles over the ocean to be in our family and you welcome her like this?” His bottom lip wobbles and a tear falls to his freckled cheek. “I can't believe you Edward Nygma.”_

“Oswald, you're being very emotional and irrational right now,” Edward states, hoping that Oswald will let him have a say. “You're not even taking into consideration for how I feel.”

_“Your feelings are wrong!”, he blurts out._

“You don't even know them!”

_“Then tell me!”_

Edward takes a deep breath, steps closer to the wheelchair, and kneels down on the floor. “You know how I feel about my childhood.” He rests his hands on Oswald's knees. “You know what happened to me and you know how I’d do anything to keep a child from living through the same things as me. I adore children and I think Regina is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.” He pauses for a moment and gazes up into the doll's glossy green eyes, imaging tears flowing from them. “But you did this the wrong way, Oswald,” he makes this fact known. There were a lot of steps Oswald missed when he brought this child into their lives. “You can't just bring in a baby and expect me to just go along with everything without having any feelings…. I would have liked to have talked about this. I would have loved to help bring her home. We should have done this together, but you did it all behind my back and expected me not to be upset.”

_Oswald sniffs his nose and holds the baby tighter. “I thought it would be good to surprise you,” he whimpers._

“It's not like surprising me with a gift card, Oswald.”  He dries the tear he imagines running down the doll's cheek. “She's a little life and you have to make preparations for something like this.”

_Oswald turns his head to the child and gently brushes his nose over her plump cheek. “You're right.” He hates to admit it, but Edward is. “I don't know what I was thinking.” He looks back down at Edward and lowers Regina from his shoulder to hold her in his arms._

The dolls have never moved from this position.

_“I was just so excited to have her that I wasn't thinking clearly,” Oswald goes on to say, lightly stroking his fingers through Regina’s soft curls. “I'm so sorry, Edward…. The last thing I wanted to do was cut you out or force you into something.”_

“It's alright, Oswald.” He slips his hand between the doll’s hand, which is located under the baby doll’s back. “Your heart is in the right place, but your plain was just miscalculated.”

_“I'm sorry,” he mutters almost incoherently._

“I forgive you.” He cups Oswald’s cheek, gently stroking his thumb across the doll’s silicone flesh. “I love you too much not to forgive you,” he says with sincere emotion. He then stands to his feet and wraps his hands around the tiny doll. “Now, let me see the baby.”

_Oswald grip tightens around Regina. He knows that Edward forgives him, but he will not be ripped away from his child. “What are you doing?”_

Edward has never seen such a fierce face on his hallucination. The protectiveness in self-conscience is really shining through.

Though the presence of the baby is completely unexpected, Edward can't just return Regina like a used car. She may be something he didn’t think he'd have at this point in his life, but life is filled with unpredictable situations and surprises of little bundles of bliss.

“I'm going to hold her,” he says softly and carefully removes the baby from the love doll’s arms. “She's my daughter too, isn't she? I need to meet her properly.”

_The hash expression falls from Oswald's face. “Yes,” he says with great relief and a smile beams across his features. For a moment he thought Edward would take Regina away and he'd never see his child again. “S-She's our daughter.”_

Edward holds the baby doll securely in his arms, walking her back and forth, as he gazes down at her proudly. He didn’t think he’d feel the euphoric rush of fatherhood so quickly. Just having the baby in his arms makes her feel like his, she is his, and she's never going anywhere else. 

“Regina Ambrose Cobblepot-Nygma.” He peeks up at Oswald. “That is a mouthful,” he chuckles. “But I love it.”

_Oswald nods, smiling at the beautiful sight before him. This is all he's wanted to see all day and he can hardly contain his overwhelming joy._

Edward then looks back down at the baby in his arms and continues to speak. “I'm Edward Nygma,” he whispers and lays a kiss on the baby doll’s brow. “I'm going to be your father if you're okay with that.”

_Regina brings her tiny hand up and closes it around Edward's nose._

Edward moves the doll's hand to touch his face.

_“She booped you!” Oswald says excitedly._

“I know.” Edward smiles from ear to ear, cheeks flushed red with unconditional love from his new family. “I guess that's her way of saying yes.”

_“Of course it is, Eddie. She wants you to be her father.”_

“Do you think I'll be a good father?”, Edward asks, stepping up to the couch and takes a seat. “Do you think I'll be like my father?” He carefully turned the doll’s wheelchair away from facing the front door and pulls it in front of him.

_“No.” Oswald turns his chair around and pushes himself towards Edward on the couch. “You'll never be like that,” he says honestly. He knows Edward is a better and stronger man than his father ever was. “You're not a monster.”_

Edward tilts forward and kisses Oswald’s soft silicone lips, tasting the cherry lip balm that Tabitha or Barbara apparently put on the doll. “If you believe that—” he leans back into the couch cushions and gazes down into Regina's sparkling brown eyes which catch all the light in them—“then I believe it too.”

## *  
*  
*  
*  
*

Edward rolls over in bed and stretches his arm across the still chest of the love doll beside him. He opens his eyes, feeling peaceful after a good night's sleep. “Oswald,” he whispers, caressing Oswald’s chest. It doesn't take long before the lifeless doll wakes before his eyes.

_“What is it, Eddie?” Oswald’s voice sounds groggy as he rubs the sandiness from his eyes. “I thought we were sleeping in today.”_

“We are,” he assures his boyfriend. “I just need to tell you something.”

_“What is it?”_

“I just had a beautifully vivid dream and it answered something I’ve always questioned about myself.”

_Oswald licks his lips and brushes away the brunette curls that rests on Edward’s brow._

Edward moves the doll’s hand himself.

 _“What have you been questioning?”, he asks_.

“If I ever wanted to become a father.” He's been asking himself that a lot lately and had planned to discuss it with Dr. Thompkins during one of their therapy sessions, but now he feels he doesn't have to. “I think I do…. No…. I know I want to be a father.”

_“That's a beautiful realization, Eddie.”_

“It really is.” He places a sweet kiss on Oswald's lips, nibbling on the lower lip before moving away. “I’m not ready—” he grazes his thumb over the doll's bottom lip— “for a child right now, but I know I'm not afraid of fatherhood anymore.”

_“You should be proud of yourself for that.”_

“I am.” He rests his head down on Oswald's chest and closes his eyes, drifting back into the world where he has a beautiful daughter waiting for him.

******

_AN: I’m so sorry for this being a dream, but it was the only way I could make it work in this universe that would reflect positively on Edward’s mental health._


End file.
